Advertisement
| political philosophy steven smith: Modernity and Its Discontents Steven B. Smith, 2016-08-09 Steven B. Smith examines the concept of modernity, not as the end product of historical developments but as a state of mind. He explores modernism as a source of both pride and anxiety, suggesting that its most distinctive characteristics are the self-criticisms and doubts that accompany social and political progress. Providing profiles of the modern project’s most powerful defenders and critics—from Machiavelli and Spinoza to Saul Bellow and Isaiah Berlin—this provocative work of philosophy and political science offers a novel perspective on what it means to be modern and why discontent and sometimes radical rejection are its inevitable by-products. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Political Philosophy Steven B. Smith, 2012-10-30 DIV Who ought to govern? Why should I obey the law? How should conflict be controlled? What is the proper education for a citizen and a statesman? These questions probe some of the deepest and most enduring problems that every society confronts, regardless of time and place. Today we ask the same crucial questions about law, authority, justice, and freedom that Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Tocqueville faced in previous centuries. In this lively and enlightening book, Professor Steven B. Smith introduces the wide terrain of political philosophy through the classic texts of the discipline. Works by the greatest thinkers illuminate the permanent problems of political life, Smith shows, and while we may not accept all their conclusions, it would be a mistake to overlook the relevance of their insights. /div |
| political philosophy steven smith: The Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss Steven B. Smith, 2009-05-11 Leo Strauss was a central figure in the twentieth century renaissance of political philosophy. The essays of The Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss provide a comprehensive and non-partisan survey of the major themes and problems that constituted Strauss's work. These include his revival of the great 'quarrel between the ancients and the moderns,' his examination of tension between Jerusalem and Athens, and most controversially his recovery of the tradition of esoteric writing. The volume also examines Strauss's complex relation to a range of contemporary political movements and thinkers, including Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Gershom Scholem, as well as the creation of a distinctive school of 'Straussian' political philosophy. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Spinoza's Book of Life Steven B. Smith, 2003-01-01 Offering a new reading of Spinoza's masterpiece, Smith asserts that the 'Ethics' is a celebration of human freedom and its attendant joys and responsibilities and should be placed among the great founding documents of the Enlightenment. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Spinoza, Liberalism, and the Question of Jewish Identity Steven B. Smith, 1997-01-01 Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677)--often recognized as the first modern Jewish thinker--was also a founder of modern liberal political philosophy. This book is the first to connect systematically these two aspects of Spinoza's legacy. Steven B. Smith shows that Spinoza was a politically engaged theorist who both advocated and embodied a new conception of the emancipated individual, a thinker who decisively influenced such diverse movements as the Enlightenment, liberalism, and political Zionism. Focusing on Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise, Smith argues that Spinoza was the first thinker of note to make the civil status of Jews and Judaism (what later became known as the Jewish Question) an essential ingredient of modern political thought. Before Marx or Freud, Smith notes, Spinoza recast Judaism to include the liberal values of autonomy and emancipation from tradition. Smith examines the circumstances of Spinoza's excommunication from the Jewish community of Amsterdam, his skeptical assault on the authority of Scripture, his transformation of Mosaic prophecy into a progressive philosophy of history, his use of the language of natural right and the social contract to defend democratic political institutions, and his comprehensive comparison of the ancient Hebrew commonwealth and the modern commercial republic. According to Smith, Spinoza's Treatise represents a classic defense of religious toleration and intellectual freedom, showing them to be necessary foundations for political stability and liberal regimes. In this study Smith examines Spinoza's solution to the Jewish Question and asks whether a Judaism, so conceived, can long survive. |
| political philosophy steven smith: The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin Lorraine Smith Pangle, 2007-09-28 Franklin's political writings are full of fascinating reflections on human nature, on the character of good leadership, and on why government is such a messy and problematic business. Drawing together threads in Franklin's writings, Lorraine Smith Pangle illuminates his thoughts on citizenship, federalism, constitutional government, the role of civil associations, and religious freedom. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Reading Leo Strauss Steven B. Smith, 2007-03-01 Interest in Leo Strauss is greater now than at any time since his death, mostly because of the purported link between his thought and the political movement known as neoconservatism. Steven B. Smith, though, surprisingly depicts Strauss not as the high priest of neoconservatism but as a friend of liberal democracy—perhaps the best defender democracy has ever had. Moreover, in Reading Leo Strauss, Smith shows that Strauss’s defense of liberal democracy was closely connected to his skepticism of both the extreme Left and extreme Right. Smith asserts that this philosophical skepticism defined Strauss’s thought. It was as a skeptic, Smith argues, that Strauss considered the seemingly irreconcilable conflict between reason and revelation—a conflict Strauss dubbed the “theologico-political problem.” Calling this problem “the theme of my investigations,” Strauss asked the same fundamental question throughout his life: what is the relation of the political order to revelation in general and Judaism in particular? Smith organizes his book with this question, first addressing Strauss’s views on religion and then examining his thought on philosophical and political issues. In his investigation of these philosophical and political issues, Smith assesses Strauss’s attempt to direct the teaching of political science away from the examination of mass behavior and interest group politics and toward the study of the philosophical principles on which politics are based. With his provocative, lucid essays, Smith goes a long way toward establishing a distinctive form of Straussian liberalism. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Classics of Political and Moral Philosophy Steven M. Cahn, 2012 Classics of Political and Moral Philosophy provides in one volume the major writings from nearly 2,500 years of political and moral philosophy, from Plato through the twentieth century. The most comprehensive collection of its kind, it moves from classical thought (Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Cicero) through medieval views (Augustine, Aquinas) to modern perspectives (Machiavelli, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Adam Smith, Kant). It includes major nineteenth-century thinkers (Bentham, Hegel, Mill) and considerably more twentieth-century theorists than are found in competing volumes (Rawls, Nozick, Taylor, Foucault, Habermas, Held, Nussbaum). Also included are numerous essays from The Federalist Papers and a variety of notable documents and addresses, among them Pericles' Funeral Oration, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, and speeches by Edmund Burke, Abraham Lincoln, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, John Dewey, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The readings are substantial or complete texts, not fragments. The second edition contains two new readings--by Charles Taylor and Virginia Held--and adds The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also presents two works by John Locke in their entirety and includes a new translation of Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. An especially valuable feature of this volume is that the writings of each author are introduced with a substantive and engaging essay by a leading contemporary authority. These introductions include Richard Kraut on Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Cicero; Paul J. Weithman on Augustine and Aquinas; Roger D. Masters on Machiavelli; Jean Hampton on Hobbes; Steven B. Smith on Spinoza and Hegel; A. John Simmons on Locke; Joshua Cohen on Rousseau and Rawls; Donald W. Livingston on Hume; Charles L. Griswold, Jr., on Smith; Bernard E. Brown on Hamilton and Madison; Jeremy Waldron on Bentham and Mill; Paul Guyer on Kant; Richard Miller on Marx and Engels; Thomas Christiano on Nozick; Robert B. Talisse on Charles Taylor; Thomas A. McCarthy on Foucault and Habermas; Cheshire Calhoun on Held; and Eva Feder Kittay on Nussbaum. Offering unprecedented breadth of coverage, Classics of Political and Moral Philosophy, Second Edition, is an ideal text for courses in political philosophy, social and political philosophy, moral philosophy, or surveys in Western civilization. |
| political philosophy steven smith: The Centre-left and New Right Divide? Steven R. Smith, 2018-11-09 First published in 1998, this volume offers some solutions to the inherent difficulties with moving from philosophical generalities to specific policies, by exploring how a bridge might be built between political philosophy and social policy analysis. In light of these findings, Steven R. Smith evaluates the relationship between the Centre-Left and the New Right, focusing on the way in which concepts of individual autonomy and equality are used by political philosophers and social policy makers. Smith explores post-1945 training, education, social security and community care policy within the United Kingdom. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Lectures on the History of Political Philosophy John Rawls, 2008-09-15 Remarks on political philosophy -- Lectures on Hobbes -- Lectures on Locke -- Lectures on Hume -- Lectures on Rousseau -- Lectures on Mill -- Lectures on Marx. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Public Philosophy and Political Science E. Robert Statham, 2002-01-01 The crisis of western civilization is a crisis of public philosophy. This is the charge of Public Philosophy and Political Science, a stunning new collection of essays edited by E. Robert Statham Jr. Vividly cataloging the decay of the moral and intellectual foundations of civic liberty, the book portrays a generation of Americans alienated from institutions built on public philosophy. The work exposes the failure of America's political scientists to acknowledge and understand this alarming crisis in the American body politic. The distinguished contributors examine the evolution of public philosophy; the inextricable relationship between politics and philosophy; and the interplay between public philosophy, the constitution, natural law, and government. They reveal the dire threat to deliberative democracy and the fundamental order of constitutional society posed by public philosophy's waning power to refine, cultivate, and civilize. The work is an indictment of a society which has discarded a way of life rooted in natural law, democracy and the traditions of civility; and is a denunciation of an educated elite that has divorced itself from the standards upon which public philosophy rests. It is essential reading for philosophers and political and social scientists seeking to resurrect the standards of American public life. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Second Treatise of Government John Locke, 2016-07-26 John Locke argues that all men are created equal in the sight of God. The Second Treatise outlines Locke's ideas for a more civilized society based on natural rights and contract theory. |
| political philosophy steven smith: LEVIATHAN (Complete Edition) Thomas Hobbes, 2018-11-02 This eBook edition of Leviathan has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil—commonly referred to as Leviathan—is a book written by Thomas Hobbes. Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan. The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory. Leviathan ranks as a classic western work on statecraft comparable to Machiavelli's The Prince. Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), Leviathan argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature (the war of all against all) could only be avoided by strong, undivided government. |
| political philosophy steven smith: The Routledge Companion to Social and Political Philosophy Gerald F. Gaus, Fred D'Agostino, 2013 This comprehensive work provides an up-to-date survey of social and political philosophy, charting its history and key figures and movements, and addressing enduring questions as well as contemporary research. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Foundations of American Political Thought Alin Fumurescu, Anna Marisa Schön, 2021-07-29 This collection of primary sources from the founding period covers the unique combination of theoretical influences in American political thought. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Political Philosophy Steven Cahn, 2022 Political Philosophy: The Essential Texts is ideal for survey courses in political philosophy. Offering unprecedented coverage from antiquity to the present, this historically organized collection presents the most significant works from nearly 2,500 years of political philosophy. The readings are substantial or complete texts, not fragments. An especially valuable feature of this volume is that the works of each author are introduced with an engaging essay by a leading contemporary authority. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Toleration and Its Limits American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy. Meeting, 2008-03 Publisher Description |
| political philosophy steven smith: Classics of Modern Political Theory Steven M. Cahn, 1997 Classics of Modern Political Theory: Machiavelli to Mill brings together the complete texts or substantial selections from the masterpieces of modern political theory. The most comprehensive anthology of its kind, this volume includes well-known works by Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx, and significant contributions from Spinoza, Montesquieu, Hume, Adam Smith, Kant, Burke, Bentham, and Tocqueville. A distinctive feature of this collection is the inclusion of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and numerous papers from The Federalist. An extended introduction to each author's writings, provided by a renowned authority on the subject, features biographical data, philosophical commentary, and bibliographical guides. Ideal for courses in political philosophy and intellectual history, as well as surveys of Western Civilization, this book presents influential authors and ideas that have shaped modern political thought. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy Richard L. Velkley, 2011-10-03 In this groundbreaking work, Richard L. Velkley examines the complex philosophical relationship between Martin Heidegger and Leo Strauss. Velkley argues that both thinkers provide searching analyses of the philosophical tradition’s origins in radical questioning. For Heidegger and Strauss, the recovery of the original premises of philosophy cannot be separated from rethinking the very possibility of genuine philosophizing. Common views of the influence of Heidegger’s thought on Strauss suggest that, after being inspired early on by Heidegger’s dismantling of the philosophical tradition, Strauss took a wholly separate path, spurning modernity and pursuing instead a renewal of Socratic political philosophy. Velkley rejects this reading and maintains that Strauss’s engagement with the challenges posed by Heidegger—as well as by modern philosophy in general—formed a crucial and enduring framework for his lifelong philosophical project. More than an intellectual biography or a mere charting of influence, Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy is a profound consideration of these two philosophers’ reflections on the roots, meaning, and fate of Western rationalism. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Introduction to Political Philosophy Geoffrey Thomas, 2000 Written mainly as a text book, but also for the general reader, this book aims to provide an introduction to the subject of political philosophy. All important past political philosophers make their appearence in the text including Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, Marx and John Stuart Mill. Contemporary philosophers such as Rawls, Dworkin and Nozick are also included. The book introduces 12 central political concepts - power, the state, sovereignty, law, authority, justice, equality, rights, property, freedom, democracy and the public interest. Each of these topics are analyzed, theories about them explained, and problems discussed. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Nature and History in American Political Development James W. Ceaser, Jack N. Rakove, Nancy L. Rosenblum, Rogers M. Smith, 2006-03-31 In this inaugural volume of the Alexis de Tocqueville Lectures, Ceaser traces how certain “foundational” ideas—including nature, history, and religion—have been understood and used over the course of American history. Three commentators challenge his arguments, and a spirited debate about large and enduring questions in American politics ensues. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Fictions, Lies, and the Authority of Law Steven D. Smith, 2021-09-15 Fictions, Lies, and the Authority of Law discusses legal, political, and cultural difficulties that arise from the crisis of authority in the modern world. Is there any connection linking some of the maladies of modern life??cancel culture,? the climate of mendacity in public and academic life, fierce conflicts over the Constitution, disputes over presidential authority? Fiction, Lies, and the Authority of Law argues that these diverse problems are all a consequence of what Hannah Arendt described as the disappearance of authority in the modern world. In this perceptive study, Steven D. Smith offers a diagnosis explaining how authority today is based in pervasive fictions and how this situation can amount to, as Arendt put it, ?the loss of the groundwork of the world.? Fictions, Lies, and the Authority of Law considers a variety of problems posed by the paradoxical ubiquity and absence of authority in the modern world. Some of these problems are jurisprudential or philosophical in character; others are more practical and lawyerly?problems of presidential powers and statutory and constitutional interpretation; still others might be called existential. Smith?s use of fictions as his purchase for thinking about authority has the potential to bring together the descriptive and the normative and to think about authority as a useful hypothesis that helps us to make sense of the empirical world. This strikingly original book shows that theoretical issues of authority have important practical implications for the kinds of everyday issues confronted by judges, lawyers, and other members of society. The book is aimed at scholars and students of law, political science, and philosophy, but many of the topics it addresses will be of interest to politically engaged citizens. |
| political philosophy steven smith: 四鎮三關志 刘效祖, 1991 |
| political philosophy steven smith: The Moral Foundations of Politics Ian Shapiro, 2012-10-30 When do governments merit our allegiance, and when should they be denied it? Ian Shapiro explores this most enduring of political dilemmas in this innovative and engaging book. Building on his highly popular Yale courses, Professor Shapiro evaluates the main contending accounts of the sources of political legitimacy. Starting with theorists of the Enlightenment, he examines the arguments put forward by utilitarians, Marxists, and theorists of the social contract. Next he turns to the anti-Enlightenment tradition that stretches from Edmund Burke to contemporary post-modernists. In the last part of the book Shapiro examines partisans and critics of democracy from Plato’s time until our own. He concludes with an assessment of democracy’s strengths and limitations as the font of political legitimacy. The book offers a lucid and accessible introduction to urgent ongoing conversations about the sources of political allegiance. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Prehistoric Myths in Modern Political Philosophy Karl Widerquist, 2016-12-05 How modern philosophers use and perpetuate myths about prehistoryThe state of nature, the origin of property, the origin of government, the primordial nature of inequality and war why do political philosophers talk so much about the Stone Age? And are they talking about a Stone Age that really happened, or is it just a convenient thought experiment to illustrate their points?Karl Widerquist and Grant S. McCall take a philosophical look at the origin of civilisation, examining political theories to show how claims about prehistory are used. Drawing on the best available evidence from archaeology and anthropology, they show that much of what we think we know about human origins comes from philosophers imagination, not scientific investigation.Key FeaturesShows how modern political theories employ ambiguous factual claims about prehistoryBrings archaeological and anthropological evidence to bear on those claimsTells the story of human origins in a way that reveals many commonly held misconceptions |
| political philosophy steven smith: Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy Michael P. Zuckert, Catherine H. Zuckert, 2017-03-22 Leo Strauss and his alleged political influence regarding the Iraq War have in recent years been the subject of significant media attention, including stories in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.Time magazine even called him “one of the most influential men in American politics.” With The Truth about Leo Strauss, Michael and Catherine Zuckert challenged the many claims and speculations about this notoriously complex thinker. Now, with Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy, they turn their attention to a searching and more comprehensive interpretation of Strauss’s thought as a whole, using the many manifestations of the “problem of political philosophy” as their touchstone. For Strauss, political philosophy presented a “problem” to which there have been a variety of solutions proposed over the course of Western history. Strauss’s work, they show, revolved around recovering—and restoring—political philosophy to its original Socratic form. Since positivism and historicism represented two intellectual currents that undermined the possibility of a Socratic political philosophy, the first part of the book is devoted to Strauss’s critique of these two positions. Then, the authors explore Strauss’s interpretation of the history of philosophy and both ancient and modern canonical political philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Locke. Strauss’s often-unconventional readings of these philosophers, they argue, pointed to solutions to the problem of political philosophy. Finally, the authors examine Strauss’s thought in the context of the twentieth century, when his chief interlocutors were Schmitt, Husserl, Heidegger, and Nietzsche. The most penetrating and capacious treatment of the political philosophy of this complex and often misunderstood thinker, from his early years to his last works, Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy reveals Strauss’s writings as an attempt to show that the distinctive characteristics of ancient and modern thought derive from different modes of solving the problem of political philosophy and reveal why he considered the ancient solution both philosophically and politically superior. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Science Fiction and Political Philosophy Timothy McCranor, Steven Michels, Erin A. Dolgoy, Kimberly Hurd Hale, Nicholas Anderson, Jeff J. S. Black, Tobin L. Craig, Paul Wilford, Nivedita Bagchi, Damien K. Picariello, Daniel J. Kapust, Constance C. T. Hunt, Danielle Sottosanti, David N. Whitney, 2020 This edited collection uses works of science fiction to illustrate and explore the fundamental themes and concepts of political philosophy, including freedom, justice, and the advantages and disadvantages of progress. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Socratic Citizenship Dana Villa, 2020-09-01 Many critics bemoan the lack of civic engagement in America. Tocqueville's ''nation of joiners'' seems to have become a nation of alienated individuals, disinclined to fulfill the obligations of citizenship or the responsibilities of self-government. In response, the critics urge community involvement and renewed education in the civic virtues. But what kind of civic engagement do we want, and what sort of citizenship should we encourage? In Socratic Citizenship, Dana Villa takes issue with those who would reduce citizenship to community involvement or to political participation for its own sake. He argues that we need to place more value on a form of conscientious, moderately alienated citizenship invented by Socrates, one that is critical in orientation and dissident in practice. Taking Plato's Apology of Socrates as his starting point, Villa argues that Socrates was the first to show, in his words and deeds, how moral and intellectual integrity can go hand in hand, and how they can constitute importantly civic--and not just philosophical or moral--virtues. More specifically, Socrates urged that good citizens should value this sort of integrity more highly than such apparent virtues as patriotism, political participation, piety, and unwavering obedience to the law. Yet Socrates' radical redefinition of citizenship has had relatively little influence on Western political thought. Villa considers how the Socratic idea of the thinking citizen is treated by five of the most influential political thinkers of the past two centuries--John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, and Leo Strauss. In doing so, he not only deepens our understanding of these thinkers' work and of modern ideas of citizenship, he also shows how the fragile Socratic idea of citizenship has been lost through a persistent devaluation of independent thought and action in public life. Engaging current debates among political and social theorists, this insightful book shows how we must reconceive the idea of good citizenship if we are to begin to address the shaky fundamentals of civic culture in America today. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Leo Strauss and the Theologico-Political Problem Heinrich Meier, 2006-12-25 This book, by one of the most prominent interpreters of Leo Strauss's thought, was the first to address the problem that Leo Strauss himself said was the theme of his studies: the theologico-political problem or the confrontation with the theological and the political alternative to philosophy as a way of life. In his theologico-political treatise, which comprises four parts and an appendix, Heinrich Meier clarifies the distinction between political theology and political philosophy and reappraises the unifying center of Strauss's philosophical enterprise. The book is the culmination of Meier's work on the theologico-political problem. It will interest anyone who seeks to understand both the problem caused by revelation for philosophy and the challenge posed by political-religious radicalism. The appendix makes available for the first time two lectures by Strauss that are immediately relevant to the subject of this book and that will open the way for future research and debate on the legacy of Strauss. |
| political philosophy steven smith: The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism Todd May, 1994-07-29 The political writings of the French poststructuralists have eluded articulation in the broader framework of general political philosophy primarily because of the pervasive tendency to define politics along a single parameter: the balance between state power and individual rights in liberalism and the focus on economic justice as a goal in Marxism. What poststructuralists like Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Jean-François Lyotard offer instead is a political philosophy that can be called tactical: it emphasizes that power emerges from many different sources and operates along many different registers. This approach has roots in traditional anarchist thought, which sees the social and political field as a network of intertwined practices with overlapping political effects. The poststructuralist approach, however, eschews two questionable assumptions of anarchism, that human beings have an (essentially benign) essence and that power is always repressive, never productive. After positioning poststructuralist political thought against the background of Marxism and the traditional anarchism of Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Proudhon, Todd May shows what a tactical political philosophy like anarchism looks like shorn of its humanist commitments—namely, a poststructuralist anarchism. The book concludes with a defense, contra Habermas and Critical Theory, of poststructuralist political thought as having a metaethical structure allowing for positive ethical commitments. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Political Philosophy Adam Swift, 2014 Bringing political philosophy out of the ivory tower and within the reach of all, this book provides us with the tools to cut through the complexity of modern politics. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Philosophy as a Way of Life Pierre Hadot, 1995-08-03 This book presents a history of spiritual exercises from Socrates to early Christianity, an account of their decline in modern philosophy, and a discussion of the different conceptions of philosophy that have accompanied the trajectory and fate of the theory and practice of spiritual exercises. Hadot's book demonstrates the extent to which philosophy has been, and still is, above all else a way of seeing and of being in the world. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Essays on Kant's Political Philosophy Howard L. Williams, 1992-10-15 As a political philosopher, Kant has until recently been overshadowed by his compatriots Hegel and Marx. With his strong defense of the rights of the person and his deep insight into the strengths and weaknesses of modern society Kant, possibly more than any other political thinker, anticipated the problems of the late twentieth century. Kant's political philosophy, wedded as it is to rights, reform and gradual progress, is emerging from the shadows cast by Hegelian and Marxist thinking about the state. In this volume, thirteen distinguished contributors from the United States, Canada, Britain, and Germany cast light on important aspects of Kant's liberal thinking. Key topics covered include Kant's liberal reformism, his relation with Hegel, his attitude to women, the use of reason, revolution, Kant's optimism and his moral and legal rigorism. Howard Williams is a reader in political theory in the Department of International Politics, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. His previous publications include Kant's Political Philosophy, Concepts of Ideology, and Hegel, Heraclitus, and Marx's Dialectic. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Toward Natural Right and History Leo Strauss, 2018-03-30 Collected lectures and essays offering insight into the philosopher and his ideas on politics, natural law, and social sciences. Toward Natural Right and History collects six lectures by Leo Strauss, written while he was at the New School, and a full transcript of his 1949 Walgreen Lectures. These works show Strauss working toward the ideas he would present in fully matured form in his landmark work, Natural Right and History. In them, he explores natural right and the relationship between modern philosophers and the thought of the ancient Greek philosophers, as well as the relation of political philosophy to contemporary political science and to major political and historical events, especially the Holocaust and World War II. Previously unpublished in book form, Strauss’s lectures are presented here in a thematic order that mirrors Natural Right and History and with interpretive essays by J. A. Colen, Christopher Lynch, Svetozar Minkov, Daniel Tanguay, Nathan Tarcov, and Michael Zuckert that establish their relation to the work. Rounding out the book are copious annotations and notes to facilitate further study. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Contemporary Confucian Political Philosophy Stephen C. Angle, 2013-04-17 Confucian political philosophy has recently emerged as a vibrant area of thought both in China and around the globe. This book provides an accessible introduction to the main perspectives and topics being debated today, and shows why Progressive Confucianism is a particularly promising approach. Students of political theory or contemporary politics will learn that far from being confined to a museum, contemporary Confucianism is both responding to current challenges and offering insights from which we can all learn. The Progressive Confucianism defended here takes key ideas of the twentieth-century Confucian philosopher Mou Zongsan (1909-1995) as its point of departure for exploring issues like political authority and legitimacy, the rule of law, human rights, civility, and social justice. The result is anti-authoritarian without abandoning the ideas of virtue and harmony; it preserves the key values Confucians find in ritual and hierarchy without giving in to oppression or domination. A central goal of the book is to present Progressive Confucianism in such a way as to make its insights manifest to non-Confucians, be they philosophers or simply citizens interested in the potential contributions of Chinese thinking to our emerging, shared world. |
| political philosophy steven smith: International Relations Theory Today Ken Booth, Toni Erskine, 2016-09-16 International Relations (IR) theorists speak with conviction, and often passion, to the global condition of human society. The result is an important, dynamic and often deeply divided field. This long-awaited new edition of International Relations Theory Today offers undergraduate and postgraduate students an essential guide to the complex terrain of IR theory and the key questions on its agenda. With chapters by 25 prominent and provocative IR theorists, the book reveals the intellectual excitement - and turmoil - of theorizing world politics. It reflects the conflicts and tensions around the profound challenges facing the contemporary world, such as climate change, globalization, nuclear proliferation, and economic and political injustice and conflict, while also expressing hope that we can better understand, and respond to, these challenges. Above all, this book demonstrates the significance of thinking theoretically about international relations and developing the tools not merely to describe but also to explain, analyse, prescribe and possibly re-imagine the global political landscape. As the world comes face-to-face with historic challenges over the coming decades, International Relations Theory Today will help its readers to participate more effectively in debates about the most important global political dilemmas of our time. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Reflections on Political Identity Anne Norton, 1988 Norton powerfully defends the inevitability and value of 'those particular, concrete traits and actions whereby men differentiate themselves from one another.'--Ethics. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Liberalism, Ancient and Modern Leo Strauss, 1989 Liberal democratic thought in the twentieth century is composed of two strands: the classical, which emphasizes human excellence, and the modern, which emphasizes individual freedom and social equality. In this collection of essays, Strauss examines the ambiguous relationship between these tendencies, seeking to illuminate the democratic discourse. |
| political philosophy steven smith: Hegel's Political Philosophy Mark Tunick, 2014-07-14 To scholars of Western intellectual history Hegel is one of the most important of all political thinkers, but politicians and other down-to-earth persons see his speculative philosophy as far removed from their immediate concerns. Put off by his difficult terminology, many participants in practical politics may also believe that Hegel's idealism unduly legitimates the status quo. By examining his justification of legal punishment, this book introduces a Hegel quite different from these preconceptions: an acute critic of social practices. Mark Tunick draws on recently published but still untranslated lectures of Hegel's philosophy of right to take us to the core of Hegel's political thought. Hegel opposes radical criticism like that later offered by Marx, but, argues Tunick, he employs immanent criticism instead. For instance, Hegel claims that punishment is the criminal's right and makes the criminal free. From this standpoint, he defends specific features of the practice of punishment that accord with this retributive ideal and criticizes other features that contradict it. In a lucid account of what Hegel means by right and freedom, Tunick addresses Hegel specialists and those interested in criminal law, the interpretation of legal institutions and social practices, and justification from an immanent standpoint. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. |
| political philosophy steven smith: The Political Thought of America’s Founding Feminists Lisa Pace Vetter, 2017-07-11 Introduction: political theory and the founding of American feminism -- Lifting the Claud-Lorraine tint over the Republic: Frances Wright's critique -- Of society and manners in America -- Harriet Martineau on the theory and practice of democracy in America -- Facing the sledge hammer of truth: Angelina Grimke and the rhetoric of reform -- Sarah Grimke's Quaker liberalism -- The most belligerent non-resistant: Lucretia Mott on women's rights -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton's rhetoric of ridicule and reform -- The shadow and the substance of Sojourner Truth -- Conclusion |
Politics, Policy, Political News - POLITICO
On POLITICO Tech, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves joins host Steven Overly to discuss how his state is trying to seize the AI moment, from energy production to workforce training. Plus, they …
Politics - Wikipedia
Politics (from Ancient Greek πολιτικά (politiká) 'affairs of the cities') is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among …
Politics | CNN Politics
Politics at CNN has news, opinion and analysis of American and global politics Find news and video about elections, the White House, the U.N and much more.
Politics: Latest & Breaking US Political News | AP News
Read breaking political news today from The Associated Press. Get the updates from AP News so you won't miss the latest in US political news.
Politics, Policy and Political News & Updates | Fox News
The latest breaking political news from Fox News. Check out all US politic news happening now. Read political stories and updates happening across the nation and in the world today.
POLITICAL Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of POLITICAL is of or relating to government, a government, or the conduct of government. How to use political in a sentence.
Politics: Latest news and headlines | NBC News
Find the latest political news stories, photos, and videos on NBCNews.com. Read breaking headlines covering Congress, Democrats, Republicans, and more.
Politics News: Political parties, election news, policies, and news ...
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked a federal judge to temporarily limit President Trump's use of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday …
Politics - The Washington Post
4 days ago · Post Politics from The Washington Post is the source for political news headlines, in-depth politics coverage and political opinion, plus breaking news on the biden administration …
POLITICAL | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
Politics means the activities of the government or people who try to influence the way a country is governed. We use a singular verb with it: … Free trade is an ongoing political issue because it …
Politics, Policy, Political News - POLITICO
On POLITICO Tech, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves joins host Steven Overly to discuss how his state is trying to seize the AI moment, from energy production to workforce training. Plus, they …
Politics - Wikipedia
Politics (from Ancient Greek πολιτικά (politiká) 'affairs of the cities') is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among …
Politics | CNN Politics
Politics at CNN has news, opinion and analysis of American and global politics Find news and video about elections, the White House, the U.N and much more.
Politics: Latest & Breaking US Political News | AP News
Read breaking political news today from The Associated Press. Get the updates from AP News so you won't miss the latest in US political news.
Politics, Policy and Political News & Updates | Fox News
The latest breaking political news from Fox News. Check out all US politic news happening now. Read political stories and updates happening across the nation and in the world today.
POLITICAL Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of POLITICAL is of or relating to government, a government, or the conduct of government. How to use political in a sentence.
Politics: Latest news and headlines | NBC News
Find the latest political news stories, photos, and videos on NBCNews.com. Read breaking headlines covering Congress, Democrats, Republicans, and more.
Politics News: Political parties, election news, policies, and news ...
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked a federal judge to temporarily limit President Trump's use of National Guard troops and U.S. Marines. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday …
Politics - The Washington Post
4 days ago · Post Politics from The Washington Post is the source for political news headlines, in-depth politics coverage and political opinion, plus breaking news on the biden administration …
POLITICAL | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
Politics means the activities of the government or people who try to influence the way a country is governed. We use a singular verb with it: … Free trade is an ongoing political issue because it …
